"According to S. Bernard, ... 'we shall be judged by that which is written in our own books,' (the books of conscience), 'and therefore they ought to be written according to the copy of the book of life; and if they not be so written, yet they ought to be so corrected."

"But thus the Enemy of Mankind hath prevailed upon us, while we were earnest in disputations about things less concerning: Then he was watchful and busy to interweave evil and uncertain principles into our Moral institutions, to intangle what was plain, to divide what was simple, to make an art o...

"Because he that endeavours to keep
a good Conscience and hath an honest mind, besides that he will inquire after his duty sufficiently, he will be able to tell very much of it himself: for God will assist him, and cause that his own mind shall tell him more than seven Watchmen that sit in a Tow...

"The Nature of things is supported by his Power, the events of things are ordered by his Providence, and the actions of reasonable Creatures are governed by Laws, and these Laws are put into a Man's soul or mind as into a Treasury or Repository: some in his very nature, some by after-actions, by ...

"And therefore Conscience is called [...] The Household Guardian, The Domestick God, The Spirit or Angel of the place: and when we call God to witness, we only mean, that our conscience is right, and that God and Gods vicar, our conscience, knows it."

In sum, It is the image of God; and as in the mysterious Trinity, we adore the will, memory, and understanding, and Theology contemplates three persons in the analogies, proportions, and correspondences, of them: so in this also we see plainly that Conscience is that likeness of God, in which he ...

"For although conscience be primarily founded in the understanding, as it is the Lawgiver and Dictator; and the rule and dominion of conscience 'fundatur in intellectu', is established in the understanding part; yet it is also Memory, when it accuses or excuses, when it makes joyful and sorrowful...

"But these high and great expressions are better in the Spirit than in the letter; they have in them something of institution, and something of design, they tell us that Conscience is a guard and a guide, a rule and a law set over us by God, and they are spoken to make us afraid to sin against ou...